The Xarren Escape (Plundering the Stars Book 2)

by James David Victor

  “We can wait for a little while. Maybe she’ll come back.”

  I nodded, though I couldn’t find the words. I felt that if I opened my mouth, I’d only sob.

  So we waited in the main room, quiet and tense, hands still on our blasters. We didn’t speak. Just sat with our backs against the wall. The door and window that faced the street were boarded up, but enough light came through that we could put her little glowing desert rock away.

  We waited. I don’t know long, but it was an hour or more until it was dark outside and only the pale glow of moonlight came through from outside. With each passing minute, my hope dimmed and dimmed until it was nothing but despair. This was pointless. Either Amara was captured, or she was gone. I hoped for the latter. She was smart and resourceful. She would have seen the footprints in the dust and left.

  But that meant our prints would scare her away too.

  We went to the alley to see if she’d show. I was surprised that Rayvan didn’t argue despite the fact that this was infinitely more dangerous than waiting in the store. I was grateful, though.

  So we waited and waited and waited some more for another hour, until the moon was high in the sky and stars twinkled on this cloudless night. No Amara. No one at all. Only a few passersby even walked on the street. The thick silence and loneliness of this Elarri night really weighed on me.

  When I was sure it was nearing midnight, Rayvan sighed and picked herself up. “We gotta go, Jinx.”

  My head snapped to her. “No! We have to wait. Amara might come.”

  “Jinx, you know that isn’t smart.”

  My shoulders sagged. Rayvan was right. We couldn’t wait any longer. I didn’t know the city as well as she did, but I wasn’t dumb enough to stay here all night. Whether it be the general criminal element or the possibility of Elexae thugs showing up, it wasn’t safe out here at night.

  “Come on then,” I replied. She nodded and started back out of the alley. It was good anyway. We could come back. And the painkillers were starting to wear off. My aches were growing.

  But then—

  “Jinx?”

  I stopped dead in my tracks. All the hairs on my body stood on edge. All the pain that still swam through my body suddenly went away. The weight in my chest evaporated and made me feel like I was floating in air. I turned. Could it be? Could it be?

  And there she was, my miniscule Zarthian friend.

  Amara. Alive.

  She was alive.

  A sob escaped my throat, and hope bloomed in my chest as tears sprang forth down my cheeks.

  6

  Chapter 6 (JINX)

  I was stunned.

  I shouldn’t have been. Seeing her alive and well was what I’d wanted. But I’d given up hope. Yet here she was with her jade skin looking almost silver in the light, her long head tentacle draped over her left shoulder. Her eyes were wide, and her lips were parted. She took a cautious step toward me, as if she wasn’t sure that she was actually seeing me, like I was a hallucination. I felt the same way.

  “Amara!” I choked, my voice cracking as a sob clawed its way out of my throat.

  “Jinx!” she cried.

  She jogged towards me, a smile breaking brightly on her face. I limped toward her as best as I could, the returning pain be damned. No amount of injuries would keep me from my friend. In a heartbeat, we crossed the distance between us and enveloped each other in the sweetest embrace I think I’d ever had. The tears flowed immediately as we sobbed into each other’s arms. I was thankful that Amara was mindful enough not to use her superior Zarthian strength, otherwise she would have crushed me.

  “I thought I lost you,” she whispered into my hair.

  “M-me too.”

  We embraced for a long while as tears streamed down our cheeks and onto each other. Finally, she released me, but held me in place. Her eyes scanned the length of me, her eyes glazing over with concern as she took in my haggard appearance. And that was without her seeing my blaster wound.

  “What happened?” she asked.

  I shook my head. “Everything went wrong. I-I lost Yan. I don’t know if he was captured or killed, but I was shot, and that was four days ago and—”

  “What? You were shot?”

  Amara’s gaze was too intense as her eyes strafed my body trying to find my wound. She grabbed my shirt and pulled it up abruptly, revealing my stomach and the dirty bandages beneath that covered my wound. She sucked in a breath through her teeth.

  “Jinx… You need to let me look at that.”

  “Hey, I did my best,” Rayvan said.

  Amara whipped her head around and stared at my new Elarri friend, her eyebrows raised inquisitively. Her question was obvious. I smacked my forehead.

  “Oh, uh, Amara, this is Rayvan. She saved my life after I was shot and dumped in an Elexae corpse pit. If it weren’t for her… Well, I wouldn’t be here.”

  Amara looked between us, then pursed her lips in a slight smile and bowed her head to Rayvan. “Thank you for saving my friend.”

  “Don’t worry your pretty blue head.”

  “How bad was the wound?”

  “She took a blaster bolt to the stomach. It was a miracle she was alive. The bolt missed everything major and just put a big scorched hole in her. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any biogel. Just basic supplies, but I did my best. The worst is over. She had an infection, but I got her some antibiotics and painkillers so she should be fine. Still needs to take it slow.”

  “Speaking of, they’re wearing off…”

  Amara looked me over again with concern, then flitted her gaze back to Rayvan. “Well, again, you have my thanks.” Rayvan nodded. Amara turned back to me. “We should get out of here. Elexae thugs have been coming here all the time, obviously looking for me or someone we know. I don’t know how they know about this place.”

  I bit my lower lip. She didn’t know about Rowan.

  She arched an eyebrow at my look. “What?”

  “I’ll explain what happened when we get back.”

  “Get back where?”

  “My house,” Rayvan chimed. “We have a speeder waiting. My district is far away so you needn’t worry about the Elexaes.”

  Amara gave her a long look. “Do you trust her, Jinx?” she whispered. “I know she saved your life, but trust is a very careful thing.”

  I looked at Rayvan. She titled her head and stared back. Clearly, she’d heard what Amara had whispered. Did I trust her? I’d been with her the last three days, gotten to know her and Beleak and be around her. Then again, we all lived with Rowan for the better part of a year and he’d still betrayed us. We’d been the best of friends, me, Yan, and him, but that didn’t matter. So trust? Tricky subject. But did I trust her enough to bring Amara back to her place and for her to not turn around and betray us immediately? I suppose I did.

  “We can trust her,” was all I said. I would have added a ‘for now,’ but that seemed too rude to say right in front of Rayvan.

  Amara nodded. “Okay then, lead the way.”

  “With pleasure,” Rayvan exclaimed.

  We made our way back to the speeder as quickly as we could without drawing too much attention to ourselves. This district, even though the area was rundown, was a lot more populated than Rayvan’s so there were plenty of people still out even though it was at least midnight. Crime never slept, and neither did alcohol. No one bothered us, though I felt the leers of several follow Amara and me.

  When we arrived at the speeder, we found Beleak laying in the back, his legs sprawled out and propped up over the side so he could lean back and lay his head on the other end. He stirred as soon as we came into eyesight, so he was awake.

  Amara slowed beside me. “Is that…a Javray?”

  I cleared my throat. “Yes, that is Beleak.” I waved at him. “Beleak, this is my friend Amara.”

  He stood tall and did that weird bird smile of his. “I’m glad to see that your quest ended in success.” He bowed deeply to Amara. “Al
ways a pleasure to meet a seli’coldia.”

  Amara flustered but inclined her head. “T-thank you. But, uh, what does that mean?”

  Rayvan answered as she hopped over the pilot’s door and into her seat. “It means ‘those of the rainbow.’ It’s what Javray call Zarthians. They have a reverence for color, so they have a lot of respect for you.”

  “Ah, that’s an interesting fact I didn’t know.”

  “So, he’ll be your best friend. Now get in. It’ll be a tight squeeze since he has to take up the whole back seat.”

  It wasn’t as tight as she made it out to be. Amara and I were both so small that we managed to fit just fine, though there wasn’t much elbow room. But it could’ve been worse. I’d been crammed into a space this small with more than a dozen slaves before when we were transported off world, so this was nothing.

  Not that being comfortable wasn’t preferred.

  On the ride back, I did my best to explain to Amara what happened, how everything was going according to plan right up until the power went out. A jailbreak occurred and Elexae prisoners had poured out of the dungeons, which wasn’t part of the plan but had been a needed diversion. If anything, it had looked like maybe luck was on our side. I made my way from the living quarters where I worked to the main floor. I was almost to the vault when Rowan surprised me and shot me.

  I remembered how he gloated and lamented how we made him do this, all the while he stood over me with a conflicted yet smug smirk and a smoking blaster. I laid there, everything fading as pain coursed through me, confused and hurt and alone and dying.

  He’d said ‘I’m sorry’ as I slipped into darkness. That was all he had to say as his former friend slipped into what he thought was death by his own hand. Just a simple apology.

  Amara could barely contain herself while I retold my side of things. Her fingers dug into her trousers to the point that it must have hurt her, but she just gritted her teeth and stared ahead, her eyes a flame.

  She shook her head. “If I see that no good, pathetic trash Goon again, I’ll rip his head off with my bare hands. That little piece of…” she cursed.

  I put a hand over hers and squeezed. “Let’s not worry about him right now.”

  “Okay.”

  The rest of the ride was silent, but it was only another couple of minutes before the sand-infested district Rayvan called home came into view. We returned to Marniss’s garage and locked up. Then Rayvan led us back to her place. Though at that point, the pain had returned completely. I could do little more than shuffle a few steps at a time, so Beleak scooped me up and carried me the rest of the way.

  I wanted nothing more than to go to sleep by the time we stepped through the doors, but there was no way that was going to happen. Amara and I had things to discuss. Once inside, Beleak laid me down atop my bedding. Rayvan quickly tried to give me another painkiller, but I waved her off.

  “Why not?” she asked, confused.

  “I don’t want to become dependent on them.”

  “The correct medical term you’re looking for is addicted,” retorted Amara.

  “Yeah, that. Besides, it’s only bad when I’m standing and trying to walk. I feel fine now.”

  Rayvan frowned but didn’t argue. “If you say so.”

  “She won’t need anymore,” Amara stated while she rummaged through her pack. “I have some biogel.”

  I sat up, surprised. “Wait, how? I thought you ran out?”

  “I did. But I got more. You think I’ve just been sitting around the last few days? No, I stocked up and got some things. Now let me take a look.”

  No arguing with her, so I leaned back against the makeshift headboard made of crates and lifted my shirt so she could undo my bandages. She was slow and gentle as usual and had them off without much more discomfort. She sucked through her teeth at the sight of my wound.

  “Well, this is a serviceable job, I suppose.”

  Rayvan shrugged. “I’m not a doctor.”

  “I helped,” chimed Beleak rather cheerfully. That made me smile.

  “I’ll need to undo the stitches and some of the artificial scabbing. That’s going to really hurt, okay, Jinx? I don’t have anything to numb it, but it’s the only way the biogel can really do its work. You understand?”

  I nodded tentatively. “Okay.” I trusted Amara of course, though I wasn’t going to enjoy this.

  Amara got the biogel ready, then took out her scalpel, followed finally by a thick cloth that she bunched up and handed to me. “Bite down on this. And you two, take her hands. Just for moral support and for her to squeeze.” Rayvan and Beleak did as they were told. My hand felt tiny inside Beleak’s massive talons. The texture of it was rough like tree bark, but it was a comfort, nonetheless.

  Materelle, please don’t let this be too painful, I prayed, then bit down on the cloth. “You ready?” she asked me. I nodded. “Okay, here I go.”

  And here she went indeed.

  She started by undoing my stitches, which hurt, but wasn’t so bad. I mean, it was painful, but each one was over quick and was like a sharp, hot flash of pain that dissolved into the thick overall miasma of my bodily discomfort. But then she moved on to the artificial scabbing that Rayvan had applied. This she had to peel away. Slowly.

  And it hurt. I mean it really hurt.

  I screamed into the cloth as she slowly carved the scabbed flesh away from the wound. I wanted it to be over. It was fire spreading over my skin. I wanted it to be over and over and ended, but Amara had to be careful. I knew that, but at the same time, I wanted to punch her and tell her to get it over with.

  Impossible. I couldn’t speak beyond my muffled screams. I wanted to swallow my tongue and not make a sound, but the pain was blinding. My eyes squeezed shut, all I saw was white, and I swear all the sounds of the world disappeared beyond my cries. Sweat drenched me, and my sheets. Lovely.

  And then, her blade pulled away and she was applying the biogel. I gasped so hard that the cloth shot from my mouth and my whole body shuddered. The biogel got to work, a low burn that spread through my stomach, but it was a good heat, the kind that made your skin crawl and itch, but I knew it was healing, it was working, because I’d had biogel before. Soon my pain was slowly being sucked away until it was a dull ache. Biogel wasn’t perfect, but it was darn near magic.

  I opened my eyes and relaxed my arms, dropping Rayvan and Beleak’s hands.

  Amara stood up and backed away from me as she let out a breath. She clapped her hands together. “Okay, all done.” She went over to Rayvan’s sink and washed her hands. I didn’t have the strength or breath to tell her that the water probably wasn’t the cleanest. When she was done, she returned to my side and put a hand on my cheek. I covered it with my own. We smiled at each other.

  “Thank you,” I breathed.

  “Welcome. I’m sorry I had to do it.”

  “No, this will help me in the long run.”

  Rayvan snorted beside me. “So now you don’t need these meds?”

  I laughed. “I’m sure you’ll find a use for them in the future.”

  Amara ignored that exchange. “I know you’re dying to tell me more and plan on our next move, but you need to sleep, give the biogel the time it needs to really fix you up. We can talk in the morning.”

  I nodded, though I didn’t have the heart to tell her that I’d really wanted to sleep from the jump.

  So from there, we all went to bed, and it was a well-deserved sleep.

  We slept in, which was a blessing because I was bone tired, but by the time I was awake, I felt amazing. There was only a dull and distant ache from the pit of my stomach where my wound used to be. I lifted my shirt and smiled at the newly-scarred surface of my stomach. Healed already. Course, the scar wouldn’t go away, but that was a small price to pay for not dying or being in pain for a long time.

  Rayvan and Amara were already awake, sitting at her table in the corner drinking what smelled like spice tea. They were whispering to each other
, probably because they thought I was still asleep. Smiles were plain on both of their faces, which was nice to see.

  I yawned and stretched out my arms. “Good morning,” I said.

  They looked to me with warm smiles. “Morning,” they said in unison, then chuckled.

  “I guess you two are getting along.”

  “Your pretty blue friend has a lot of interesting stories to tell, Jinxy.”

  “As I told you, I’m jade-colored. I don’t have the temperament to be blue.”

  I rolled my eyes and smirked back at that. No, she did not. In Zarthian culture, it was widely believed that the color of your skin would predict your personality. Blues were considered wise and gentle, reds were hotheaded and loud, yellows were strong and determined, and so forth. Amara was close enough to blue though and shared a lot of those traits. Though she was also quick to anger at times and loved to blow stuff up. The color theory wasn’t a science, after all.

  I pushed to my feet without much effort and walked over to the table and sat between them.

  “Feeling better?” Amara asked.

  “Mhm! I feel amazing.”

  Rayvan stood up. “I’ll pour you some tea.” She went to the little kitchen, poured some tea into a cup, and returned and handed it to me. I took it carefully so I didn’t burn myself. Steam wafted off the top. The scent of spice was strong in my nose. Yep, definitely spice tea. I took a sip. Delicious.

  “Where’s Beleak?” I asked as she sat back down.

  She sipped her tea. “He’s out working.”

  “What does he do?”

  “Anything and everything, my friend. Bodyguarding, bouncing, some thieving, whatever needs doing. Some other unsavory things that I don’t want to go into.”

  Amara snickered. “Seems like we’re in the right crowd.”

  We sat in silence for about a minute as we enjoyed our tea. My stomach rumbled, but I didn’t want to impose on Rayvan. And also, if all she had was that canned slimy meat slop, then I wasn’t eager to have any more of it, no matter how hungry I was.